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Sunday, 30 March 2014

How peaceful was the world from 1953 to 1963?

Document 1:

Closing paragraphs of
the article “On Peaceful Coexistence” by Nikita Khrushchev, published in October
1959 in the magazine FOREIGN AFFAIRS 38, no. 1

(…) The Soviet people have stated and declare again that they do not
want war. If the Soviet Union and the countries friendly to it are not
attacked, we shall never use any weapons either against the United States or
against any other countries. We do not want any horrors of war, destruction,
suffering and death for ourselves or for any other peoples. We say this not
because we fear anyone. Together with our friends, we are united and stronger
than ever. But precisely because of that do we say that war can and should be
prevented. Precisely because we want to rid mankind of war, we urge the Western
powers to peaceful and lofty competition. We say to all: Let us prove to each
other the advantages of one's own system not with fists, not by war, but by
peaceful economic competition in conditions of peaceful coexistence.

As for the social system in some state or other, that is the domestic
affair of the people of each country. We always have stood and we stand today
for non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. We have always
abided, and we shall abide, by these positions. The question, for example, what
system will exist in the United States or in other capitalist countries cannot
be decided by other peoples or states. This question can and will be decided
only by the American people themselves, only by the people of each country.

The existence of the Soviet Union and of the other socialist countries
is a real fact. It is also a real fact that the United States of America and
the other capitalist countries live in different social conditions, in the
conditions of capitalism. Then let us recognize this real situation and proceed
from it in order not to go against reality, against life itself. Let us not try
to change this situation by interferences from without, by means of war on the
part of some states against other states.

I repeat, there is only one way to peace, one way out of the existing
tension: peaceful coexistence.

Document 2:

Photo by John Sadovy taken during the Hungarian
Uprising, published in LIFE magazine in 1956

Questions to help you analyse the first document:

Who was Nikita Khrushchev?

What is the nature of the document?

What is the magazine FOREIGN AFFAIRS?

Who was Khrushchev writing for?

How was the article perceived?

What was the USSR like under Khrushchev?

What was the situation in the world in this period?

What does the extract say (summarise)?

What is "peaceful coexistence"?

How "peaceful" was the world in fact?

Questions to help you describe and comment the second document:

What is an “iconic”
photo?

Who was John Sadovy?

What was LIFE
magazine?

What happened in
Budapest in 1956?

Where is this group of
young men?

What is their job?

What is the time of
day and period of the year?

What do you “hear” and
“smell”?

What do their facial
expressions and body language say about their emotions?